Of
all the buzzwords in the intelligent buildings industry, “analytics”
may have the widest range of definitions, perhaps even more so than
what it means to call a building “smart.”

As building owners, operators, engineers, and technicians each have
their own goals and visions for intelligent buildings, campuses,
portfolios, and cities, each stakeholder can end up with different
expectations for what analytics can bring to their role. If these
stakeholders have partnered with a Master Systems Integrator, these
disparate goals will be brought into a single vision and technology
plan for any upcoming project, and determining the role, inputs, and
outputs of an analytics platform is certainly a large part of that
plan.

So, what are the key factors these stakeholders and their partners
should look for when evaluating analytics platforms, especially as new
offerings hit the market at the rate they do today? Further, what kind
of plan should be in place before choosing a platform to ensure it is
as successful as possible?

In order to serve diverse stakeholders, an analytics platform must be
agile in its ability to perform complex functions and display results
in a way that properly reaches and empowers those stakeholders to
better perform in their roles. In other words, a platform should have
the ability to provide broad overviews for C-suite stakeholders while
still giving granular reports to building engineers, or feed into work
order management systems to push action from the insight it provides.

Analytics platforms are complex and require a very specific mix of
talents to produce. As more building stakeholders become accustomed to
integration platforms that take huge amounts of data and package it
into logical, navigable interfaces, an analytics platform must work
within that framework to avoid over-complicating an end-user's existing
toolkit.

Integration is key with analytics platforms because, quite simply, if
end users can’t easily access the insights a platform provides, they
can’t act on the data. Analytical rules must be custom-written based on
a building’s sequence of operation; if the platform doesn’t know how a
building should operate, it can’t accurately show users the problems
with how it is operating. These analytical rules are often written in
complex programming languages, and therefore require the full attention
of experienced software developers to ensure accuracy. Finally, to
present complex outputs in logical views, designers work with the whole
team to create custom reports that provide the right people with the
right information.

The best analytics platforms make it easy for end users to make
informed decisions about potential changes to operational schedules,
equipment setpoints and maintenance priorities. The smartest put
software developers to work even more to integrate directly with work
order management systems, providing detailed information about specific
building issues, and recommended steps to fix them.

Conversely, an analytics platform that doesn’t give the ability to
visualize and control building systems or integrate to third-party
software with ease can add more burden that it relieves. Adding any new
siloed system, including software solutions like analytics simply do
not fit today’s most commonly agreed ideal of an intelligent building.
Achieving that ideal with a standalone analytics platform can add
myriad hours of development time, and may ultimately be futile, as
autonomous buildings become a reality. A standalone system likely will
never be able to adjust sequences automatically to prevent negative
outcomes.

Before a new analytics platform is implemented,
stakeholders must consider who will be tasked to do what with the data
the new system outputs. After all, an analytics platform can provide an
unprecedented level of insight into how a building is operating when no
one is looking, even applying accurate costs to each rule within the
system, but it cannot automate every maintenance task. Therefore, if no
action is taken as a result of that insight, no return on investment
can be enjoyed.

Much like choosing an integration platform, selecting an analytics
platform is an incredibly important decision for stakeholders in
intelligent buildings projects. The right platform can provide whole
new levels of optimization and automation that go beyond showing what a
site’s disparate systems are doing when you’re looking, and toward
explaining the issues that happen when nobody’s there. With so many
ways inefficiencies can drain budgets, analytics platforms can catch
concerns that may not affect tenant comfort, and therefore may never
result in a call to maintenance.

Evaluating the options on the market today is a complex process, but
with proper planning, a unified vision, and trusted partners,
stakeholders can rest assured that the right choice is made, and
benefits will be reaped for years to come.